Greenwich Cemetery, Greenwich New York

Lot AC 326 in this cemetery contains the remains of some members of the Martin L. Herrington (or Harrington) family.

Only 2 of the burials have markers. One of the two was placed in the 1990’s by my mother on the grave of her father, David Henry Herrington. In 1950 this lot was owned by Julia Harrington, probably the Julia that was a sister of David. The burials, with links to photos of the two stones:

Ross V. died 1923 age 41, space 1, brother of Phineas and David, son of Kate and Martin. (sorry about the legs, had to block the sun!)

Granny Pam

15 comments

I have Harrington ancestors. Robert Harrington 1614-1707 and Susannah George 1632-1694 being the immigrant ancestors. I know some of the descendants spelled it Herrington. Just curious to see if we have a distant connection.

I can’t connect my family to Robert, so I don’t know. The earliest person in this line for whom I have information is Martin L Herrington/Harrington. At the time of the 1870 census he was 16, born US and residing in the home of Job Herrington, in Cambridge, Washington County, NY, a farm laborer. He is not mentioned in Job’s will. I have no clue who Martin’s parents were, and I haven’t found any connection of him to Job, although I’m still looking. Martin sometimes said his father was born Scotland and his mother was born Ireland, and sometimes he said his parents were born in NY. Or at least the census taker recorded those places. He always said he was born in NY.

His death record says (in part) Died 7 January 1926, in Washington County, Argyle town, Washington County Alms House, having resided there 10 days, Martin Harrington, usual residence Easton, New York, male, white, widower, wife Kate Knapp, his date of birth 1854, occupation mason, unknown father, unknown mother. His birth place was illegible, and my grandfather, David H. Herrington gave the information.

Interestingly, his wife Kate Knapp lived longer, she was in an apartment in Troy, NY. Perhaps he had to be a widower to get into the poor house. The couple had been separated for years.

I have no idea where Martin and the other children were, I did find David, my grandfather nearby, married to a first wife who was not my grandmother.

I would love to find a connection from this humble little blog!

Candyce on April 24, 2009 at 2:19 pm

I’d like to find a connection as well. And I feel that you are doing a great job with it.

My frustration comes from not being able to find information on my mother’s family. Every once in a while I will do a Google search, such as I did today, and I may or may not come up with anything new.

Today’s keywords were just plain ‘Harrington’, and ‘New York’, as I could see from a 1930 census that my mother’s parents were both born in New York, somewhere around the Greenwich area. This search yielded a post of GenForum from a person who was searching for her ancestors as well.

She wrote …
“Searching for info on my GGt Grandparents Martin and Kate Harrington from Greenwich, New York. Martin came to U.S. from Dublin Ire. at age 9. He married Kate (?) whose mother came from Scotland, but her father was an Indian Chief of the Iroquois. Martin and Kate had 13 Children. The family was involved in music.
Children: David, Phineos, William, Fanny M.,
Julia Eva Mae, Elizabeth Ellen, Margaret Mae,(my Great Grandmother, born 1894) Twins, Alexander and Clara, and I do not have names for the others. Would like to hear from any family or friends that may be out there.”

I was unable to contact the author of this post. My assumption would be that the email provided is no longer viable.

Four clues jumped out at me based upon stories and comments that I had heard from my mother (now deceased). The four clues are:
1. Greenwich, New York, where it is believed my grandmother was born
2. Ireland, as it has been mentioned that my siblings and I are of Irish descent
3. Indian Chief, as my mother had often said that we are also descended from an Indian chief
4. And the name ‘Margaret Mae’, which would have been my grandmother’s name. The birth year is even the same as her birth year.

It seems that there could not have been too many Martin and Kate Harringtons living in Greenwich, New York at around the same time, so it makes me wonder …

Thanks for the information you have provided thus far, which, I must say, is more information than I have found in over 20 years of searching off and on.

D on July 7, 2009 at 10:29 am

I also ran across a Martin and Kate Harrington in the Amsterdam NY area
in the early 1800’s. I am quite certain Martin was of Irish descent.

1910 United States Federal Census, Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, T624_1070, SD 6, ED61, sheet 6A image 0405. line 41-44, street illegible, house 153, dwelling 65, family 147. Ross Herrington appears on this image with his wife, child and mother. Kate and Martin were apparently separated.

I have additional listings that I have found (the hard way, page by page), but have not transcribed yet. The indexes aren’t always as helpful as we wish they were. I also have a couple of census for Kate before she married, her parents were Henry J. Knapp and Julia A. Sherwood of Greenwich, Washington County, NY. Perhaps this will help you find them.

Candyce on July 8, 2009 at 11:46 am

Me again!
On Ross’ headstone, what are the dates? To me they look like:
Aug. 18. 1882
Oct. 21, 1923
Is that correct?

I am also going through 100s of pages at Ancestry. They certainly do not make it as simple to do as I’d like. But, I work at it until my eyes cross, and I also skip a lot of days in between so my eyes can recover.

I really appreciate the information you have given so far. It really has helped.

Please let me know if you find new information about this family. You can use my e-mail address which you have, or click on the contact link on this blog.

Thank you.

Eileen on February 10, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Hi…don’t know if I am getting in too late on this..but here goes. My grandfather is Ross V. Harrington. Thank you so much for posting the grave site. He was killed when my Mother, Irene (Harrington) Quinn was 3 months old. He was killed by a train in his automobile on Oct. 23, 1923. If you would like, I will invite you to look at my family tree. It is still a work in progress, (aren’t they all) ? I just received from the Troy library, copies of the newspaper articles from his accident. I thought he was from an entire different family